Libya's Rebel Military Chief of Staff Assassinated

Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the independent Libyan armed forces General Abdul Fatah Younis gives a press briefing on April 28, 2011.
(GEORGES GOBET/AFP/Getty Images/Getty)

Gen. Abdel Fattah Younis, Libya's rebel military chief of staff, was shot and killed this morning along with two other commanders on their return trip to Benghazi from Port Brega. Suspicions surrounding the deaths are numerous, but the identity and motives of the gunmen have yet to be revealed. Gen. Younis defected in February to the rebel military after years of working under Gaddafi's regime as Libya's interior minister. Doubts concerning his loyalty to the rebel cause were numerous.

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The rebel government to which he was serving is being very coy about the circumstances up to now; it’s difficult to know who or what was behind it.